My impression is that his unit costs are close to dino prices per mile travelled?
I don't have a problem with that, per se. My away-from-home charging is 10-ish% (of total used). (My range is 220 real-world miles, and I'm out-of-range about 2 days per month). Provider has to recoup capital cost etc. and (as I understand it) wholesale electricity price can be dependent on peak-demand, so with (say) 4 pumps at 50kW that runs the risk of hitting a 200kW peak (unless batteries installed to smooth-the-load, but then that's more capital cost to have to recoup)
I don't charge at e.g. Supermarket for the weekly-shop because I can charge at home, and I don't need the top-up; even if it was cheap/free I think it would be better that I leave that Pump for someone that needs it (for range).
Of course to get to that point EVs need a "reasonable range".
It is about time something was done to make all charging points available to all motorists by using contactless credit cards and sensible pricing.
maybe there is hope?
The
law requires that this is sorted out - "
an infrastructure operator must ensure that all recharging points for which that operator is responsible incorporate intelligent metering systems (defined as a) displays to the person using the recharging point the time of its use; b)is secure with regard to data sent from and to it.) and infrastructure operators must ensure their recharging points provide ad-hoc access for electric vehicle users[defined as the ability for any person to recharge an electric vehicle without entering into a pre-existing contract with electricity supplier / infrastructure operator)"
That applies to all "new" Pumps after Nov-2017 and existing ones no later than 18-Nov-2018
Not sure we are home-and-dry because, for example, some operators appear to be getting around this by allowing registration of any RFID (e.g. a bank card) - so meets the adhoc requirement and BP is trying to do the whole brand-loyalty thing by taking out a subscription to their service.
If I had, say, 400 real-world mile range I wouldn't need to charge away from home from one year to the next ... and IMO Rapid Chargers wouldn't see much use (or the ones in the existing rollout will suffice for a much bigger large-battery fleet). At the least the only people who would want a subscription service at that point would be long distance drivers, and folk with no "at home" charging facilities.